Easyjet IS going to online-only check-in

According to the in-flight magazine on my flight today, towards the end of April. According to the clerk at Stansted Airport this morning, on April 1st. So if you're on holiday now and are going to fly Easyjet in a few days, make sure you will have access to a printer somewhere. Easyjet: now as crap as Ryanair.

Philip, Thanks for the info! I've now booked a flight with EasyJet, so will have to give some thought on how I'm going to deal with that situation. I have the EasyJet App on my iPhone and they have an online check-in option, so that may be one solution (although that won't allow me to print a boarding pass)? I'll ponder this for awhile, but may have to send them an E-mail to enquire. Thanks for posting this. Cheers!

@ken I bought an EasyJet ticket several weeks ago for a trip from AMS to MXP. And the confirmation e-mail said I could check in and print my boarding pass 30 DAYS before my travel date. So I am assuming I will have my paperwork done before I leave home. Now all I need to do is show up at the gate on time.
Am I missing something or isn't this the same thing I will do 24 hours before my transatlantic flight? So in my case I don't see a big problem.

@Robert, The EasyJet website states for those travelling with checked baggage, "Some airports with fast bag drops allow you to check-in online and then quickly and easily 'drop off' your hold baggage when you get to the airport. Fast drops close 40 minutes prior to the scheduled departure of your flight. For those airports without fast bag drops or self service kiosks, you can still check-in online if you have hold baggage but you will need to queue up at the check-in desk as normal. Once your baggage has been checked in, you will be given a new boarding card."
I'm not entirely clear on how this new system will work. Will there still be a "normal" check-in desk? What about printing the luggage tag / bar code? I've already paid for checked luggage. @George, I'm still using iOS 5, so don't have Passbook available. If I'm able to check-in online, I'll have to use something other than Passbook. Cheers!

I just checked my EasyJet E-ticket and it states: > Check in opens 2 hours prior to flight time. > Check in closes 40 minutes prior to flight time. I'm assuming that means that I'll be able to print my boarding pass (and perhaps luggage tag) 30-days before the flight, but will only be able to check-in on the day of the flight? I've also opted to pay for priority boarding, so it will be interesting to see how well that works.

Ken, unless your flight is before 0830 you can't drop checked bags the night before. If you have checked bags you need to drop them no earlier than 2 hours prior, no later than 40 minutes prior. No, you don't print your own luggage tag. After you on-line check in from 30 days prior to something like 3 hours prior you need not see an EasyJet person unless you have to drop checked bag(s) until you get to the gate an absolute minimum of 40 minutes prior. paid for priority boarding, so it will be interesting to see how well that works
Bon chance, mi amigo. When we used Easyjet earlier this month they had an "Early Boarding" sign at the front of the queue which had been pushed to the side. Maybe they didn't have anybody using the plan? It is still s real rugby scrum at the gate and trying to get carry-on up into the overheads even though everybody has an assigned seat number. Boarding was definitely first come first served (or in Bologna, first push first served). There is less overhead space than required by all the carry on bags, even limited to one per person (plus coats, umbrellas, etc). Several bags were cabin checked. Maybe priority boarding would give you first crack at the bins.

Having just done the check-in 30 days ahead and baggage drop (Gatwick to Bologna and return) I can say that the print at home 30 days in advance is a non-issue. So is the baggage drop. We rocked up to a completely deserted check in area at LGW at about 2030, when they said they would be open for flights departing prior to 0830 the next day. We showed them the bag to be checked, they wanted our passport and checked that, they wanted our boarding pass (previously printed at home from a nice .pdf that they sent). They attached the label to the bag, stapled the stub to the boarding pass and we were back in our hotel in 15 minutes. Turned up the next morning, flashed pasports and boarding passes at security and gate staff and walked onto the bus to the aircraft. Slightly different coming back from Bologna as there was no previous night bag drop-off as we were flying mid-day. Rocked up to the check-in area; there were 3 lines. One to check in, quite long. One to drop bags, 8 people ahead of us. One to buy tickets, about 3 in that line. We popped the bag on the scale, showed passports and boarding pass printed at home and they put a label on the bag but took our boarding pass. They swapped it for a boarding card from the deck in her hand (same seats and with name pre-printed) and she stapled our stub to that boarding card. At the gate they took part of the boarding card and left us with the two stubs including the one with our luggage label on it. For people who just joined the scrum at the gate having no checked luggage they walked down the line changing the boarding passes for boarding cards and sent one person to buy a different ticket for whatever reason. All-in-all, pretty easy.

But are they eliminating check-in at the airport completely? Normally, I'd think no problem. I routinely use online check-in with other airlines. However, last year when I flew easyJet, I couldn't get the online boarding pass to generate. I tried multiple times on two different computers over the course of several days. Each time, it would fail. I'm not sure if it was my browser, or my firewall, or their software ... but regardless, I wasn't happy. I had to get up even earlier for my crack-of-dawn flight so I could stand in the painfully long check-in queue at Gatwick. The only thing that softened the blow was that I didn't have to pay for the privilege of having them print the boarding pass. If they go the way of Ryanair and charge 70 quid to print a boarding pass, I'll think long and hard before I book a flight with easyJet.

Nigel - sorry if you have said so already. As you know we are flying Easyjet to Bologna soon. Reading about the 30 day check-in window I presumed that I could print out the boarding passes for the return flight before we left home. Have I read it right?

Hi Linda - yep you're correct. That's what we did. I've been a bad boy and not reported back yet on Bologna airport's redevelopment and associated topics. This probably isn't the best thread for it so I will wake up my previous Bologna thread for a report back. Long story short - still plenty of construction all over BLQ but easily manageable. Airside (departures) A-Grill coffee the worst I have ever had in Italy. And served in a paper cup. And a really poor attitude. And she didn't speak Italian. Train station full of construction too, but manageable, just.

I've contacted EasyJet customer service regarding check-in, and have now received a reply. This is a summary of their response: > Check-in desks are open 2 hours prior to departure. > Online check-in can be done 30-days prior to flight. Passengers who did not check in online need to go through regular check-in procedures. > They also now offer online check-in on some routes and this will be highlighted at the end of the booking if this service is available on some or all of the flights you have booked. > Full details of their check-in policy can be found in the Terms & Conditions section of their website at: http://www.easyjet.com/EN/Book/regulations.html&#35;checkin I'm not sure I'm reading this correctly, but it appears to me that nothing has changed? I can either check-in at the airport within the time window allowed, or check-in online up to 30-days prior to the flight. Cheers!

Personal check-in stops as of April 30. Beginning on that date all boarding passes must be printed in advance (available up to 30 days before departure.) Check-in desks will be replaced by luggage s. Read all about it here: http://www.easyjet.com/EN/Flying/index

@Southam, I read the information in the link you provided and it seems quite straight forward. As they'll have Bag Drop desks, I'm assuming they'll still need to staff those in order to print the bar code luggage tags? With a 30 day check-in window, I could even do that prior to leaving home. If the system operates the same as carriers here, it will be possible to print the boarding pass at the same time, so that will save some time. I'm sure it will all become crystal clear once I try this new system in June. Cheers!